A Belgian Living Abroad on 22 March 2016

Don’t touch my country.

It was 7:30am. Being a university student, I don’t normally wake up this early but today I planned on making it to my 8:30 class. It’s 9:30 as I write this and I’m still in my room.

When I woke up, I checked my phone, expecting the usual deluge of emails and WhatsApp messages. Today was different — having just woken up, my mind didn’t really register the world and all I noticed was a stream of Facebook notifications. Reading the notifications properly, I realised it was my friends ‘marking’ themselves safe.

My friends who live in Belgium. Home.

A terrible feeling gripped me — it was only a few days ago that the last surviving suspect of the Paris attacks was captured in Belgium. Surely nothing could have happened so soon?

I was wrong. Two explosions at Zaventem Airport and one at Maelbeek/Maalbeek Metro station. It was a surreal feeling. The explosion at Zaventem was at a place where I (and millions of others) have walked through every time we go to the airport. The Maelbeek/Maalbeek station is just a few hundred metres away from the European Commission. All these innocent people — simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. All because there are people in this world who just cannot accept others. This needs to stop.

So what do we do now?

We pray for Belgium.

We pray for Peace.

We pray for the World.

We stand Together.

#tousensemble

My thoughts go out to all those affected by the Brussels attack, and to all the innocent victims of such violence throughout the world that have slipped by unrecognised.